THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Don’t take parking, carts for handicapped

May 15, 2008 09:55 pm

— I was in Wal-Mart recently, and because of a leg amputation I sat for an hour waiting to get a handicap cart so I could do shopping. After waiting and observing the people coming and going, some getting a cart before I could get to it, it became obvious that 90 percent of the people who use those carts don't really need them.
Some people using them were overweight, as I am, but could still get out of the cart to go into McDonald’s or walk out of the store. I also observed a number of people who used the handicapped parking because they don’t want to walk.
These people would park in a handicapped spot and walk into the store and walk around for an hour, so why is there a need for them to park so close to the store and deprive people like myself a safe place to get out of our cars to shop?
Two gentlemen also parked next to me. They were very healthy and in a pickup with two children. They went into the store for a few minutes and then came back out and stood around and talked, taking up a spot for someone who really needed it.
I heard one of them say someone asked if he had a tag to park there and he said, “I told them yea, it’s my grandma’s old one, hahahaha.”
My father-in-law is paralyzed on the left side and has to use a power chair.
They have a ramp van and it plainly says on the side not to park within eight feet so he can load and unload safely. People will pull up right next to the van in the slanted line spots that are specifically for loading and unloading the handicapped and then get mad when you ask them not to park there.
I could walk once. Now I can’t and it seems I am being paid back for the times I was too lazy to walk a few steps.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Susan Rigler
Tahlequah